Annette L. Stanton, PhD

Developing evidence-based approaches to promote the psychological, social, and physical health of women living with breast cancer.

Impact

While no two women will experience the diagnosis and treatment for their breast cancer in exactly the same way, there are certain emotional and physical challenges that many share, such as adhering to endocrine therapy and managing depression and anxiety. In addition, Black women who have breast cancer face specific challenges that have a negative effect on their quality of life. Dr. Stanton has established a strong community-academic partnership and together, they are developing and testing interventions that address the unique issues that Black women with breast cancer experience and to improve both breast cancer outcomes and the quality of life for patients.

Progress Thus Far

Dr. Stanton’s research has been centered on understanding and developing methods to improve survivorship for patients with breast cancer. Her team completed the REACH trial that tested an intervention to promote endocrine therapy adherence. The resulting data is helping to refine and test this intervention more broadly. In a second line of research, her team has formulated linguistic predictors of depressive symptoms in women living with metastatic breast cancer. Their findings suggest that psychological distancing and normalization of one’s metastatic breast cancer experience may be a powerful strategy for women vulnerable to depressive symptoms. In the current study, Dr. Stanton and her colleagues accrued more than 150 Black women diagnosed with breast cancer into the SOAR (Speaking Our African American Realities) trial. This study is evaluating the relevance and consequences of the Strong Black Woman schema —specifically the need to be strong, suppress emotions, decline support, and care for others— to the health and well-being of these patients. With her community collaborators, she has formed culturally curated focus groups called Gatherings, to determine what resources and/or interventions are needed to enhance the health and well-being of Black patients. The Gatherings revealed that the Strong Black Woman schema leads to Black women neglecting self- care during the cancer experience. The feedback also provided ways to improve interaction with breast cancer care teams, offered recommendations for improving cancer care, and the importance of spirituality in coping strategies. The Gatherings were so positive that groups reconvene to learn about the study’s findings and work to create resources for Black women with breast cancer. Dr. Stanton and her collaborators have embarked on an expansion study to survey 125 Black breast cancer survivors online.

What’s next

Encouraged by the success of the Gatherings, Dr. Stanton and her community partners are now taking the next steps in Project SOAR. They are collating the feedback from the groups to help shape an intervention to enhance the well-being and health of Black women diagnosed with breast cancer. They will continue to analyze the data emerging from the online surveys. Together, Dr. Stanton’s research will support Black women with breast cancer and potentially improve their well-being and health.